I've got a lot of brains but no polish.

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Tomorrow is March 15, which on the Roman calendar was known as the Ides of
March. Now, the Ides are only on the 15th in March, May, July and
October. The rest of the year, they are on the 13th. But in March, they
are the 15, and it was on March 15, 44 B. C. (709 AUC, for those of you
using the Roman calendar) that Gaius Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times at
the foot of the statue of Pompey, his rival in the Civil War.

William Shakespeare was a Latin teacher before he was an actor or
playwright, and as such he was no doubt well-educated in Roman history. So
he had a lot of knowledge to draw on when he wrote his play, *Julius Caesar*.
Today, in honor/mourning of the death of a man who was at least very smart,
if not very nice, I give you selections from Shakespeare’s play.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of
death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me
most strange that men should fear; * * Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come.

– Act II, Scene 2.

I could be well mov’d if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers
would move me; But I am constant as the northern star, * * Of whose
true-fix’d and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. The
skies are painted with unnumber’d sparks, They are all fire and every one
doth shine, * * But there’s but one in all doth hold his place: So, in the
world; ’tis furnish’d well with men, And men are flesh and blood, and
apprehensive; Yet in the number I do know but one * * That unassailable
holds on his rank, Unshak’d of motion: and that I am he, Let me a little
show it, even in this, That I was constant Cimber should be banish’d, * *